Berets are just one of those items that every few years or so I find really appealing. I’ve owned my fair share over the years. In fact I think I could dig out at least 3 from the back of my cupboard right now all with varying degrees of wear. I usually have a few weeks of wearing them thinking that I look the absolute bomb and then BOOM! Suddenly I think they look completely ridiculous and the beret is then relegated to the bottom of the wardrobe!

Beret season is back for me – and this time I decided to knit one!

I used the free hat pattern from Wool and the Gang called the Bonnie Beret (you need to sign up to the newsletter in order to download it for free). It’s a quick knit on the flat using one 200g skein of their chunky Crazy Sexy Wool yarn (with a little left over). It took me just a couple of hours or so to knit it up.

It’s quite a simple pattern I think. It uses a stockinette stitch and increases and decreases on both knit and purl rows. For once I followed the instructions properly on sewing up the edges and I managed to get a really neat finish. Go figure!

I steam blocked mine then weighted it down under some reasonably flat heavy objects to “set” that brim. Not part of the instructions but it seemed like a sensible thing to do!

I knitted mine on 12mm needles rather than the suggested 10mm as it’s what I had available and so it’s come out a fraction bigger than intended. It still fits (just!) but I’ll always wonder if it would’ve been better in 10s!

Now the real question is – how do you wear it?